Can you NYC guys recommend some awesome lunch and dinner spots near the Grand Hyatt?

Looking to spend around $30 tops per head for lunch and up to $50 per head tops for dinner. We won't be drinking alcohol so please take that into consideration for the price as well. Not necessarily looking for anything fancy; ethnic food is welcome.

I heard there's an authentic Hunan restaurant nearby and my roommate has never had 'real' Chinese food before, so I'd like to take him there. I've never had authentic Hunan-style Chinese either so I'm very inclined to check it out. Just googled it and it's called Hunan Manor. Anyone ever been there before?

We're also looking to hit up some bars and lounges, so any recommendations for those would be much appreciated as well.

Haandi and Dhaba are the two ok places in the neighborhood (called Curry Hill, a play on Murray Hill). NYC is abysmal for indian food actually. The only place I would even consider eating for a decent meal is Moti Mahal Delux, which is in the 60s on the far east side of Manhattan.

Others can comment on the authenticity, but the Chicken Biryani at Mint (50th between 3rd & Lex) is awesome.

Places like Mint are at best like the Shun Lee Palace and usually like the Olive Garden of Indian food. Try Moti Mahal Delux, which is a branch of a big New Delhi chain. Unfortunately you will not find notable Biryani in NYC like you can in some other cities, e.g. Shalimar in San Francisco (in the "Tandoorloin" neighborhood).

There's like 500* Indian restaurants in Curry Hill + 100* holes in wall places where cab drivers go eat at 3am, and yet it is plausible that there would not be a place that serves decent Indian food in this city where 300,000 South-Asian americans live (mostly Indian)? hmm...

Places like Mint are at best like the Shun Lee Palace and usually like the Olive Garden of Indian food. Try Moti Mahal Delux, which is a branch of a big New Delhi chain. Unfortunately you will not find notable Biryani in NYC like you can in some other cities, e.g. Shalimar in San Francisco (in the "Tandoorloin" neighborhood).

go to queens bro! all azin/ethinic food is there but you need to find it.

There's like 500* Indian restaurants in Curry Hill + 100* holes in wall places where cab drivers go eat at 3am, and yet it is plausible that there would not be a place that serves decent Indian food in this city where 300,000 South-Asian americans live (mostly Indian)? hmm...* not actual statistics

Quote:

Originally Posted by LawrenceMD

go to queens bro! all azin/ethinic food is there but you need to find it.

Gdl - it's a demographics thing. There are also a lot of Chinese people here obviously but NYC's offerings are relatively mediocre there as well with the possible exception of some Uighur restaurants in Flushing. Anyway, the issue is that there is not much of an established middle class Indian community in NYC, certainly not compared to San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, etc. Ask any Indian person you know and they will corroborate this. In terms of broad demographic trends, Indian immigrants tend to move to the west coast (tech industry) or around the country to practice medicine, engineering, etc. The ones that do stick around in the tristate area tend to shift to the burbs (e.g. central New Jersey) because of various cultural attitudes (they need space to entertain large extended families, put up their parents for months on end, etc). This all sounds ridiculously stereotypical but again I'm sure your Indian friends will confirm. The Indians that remain in NYC are usually poor immigrants (cab drivers, etc), recent immigrants in transition (medical residents, students), and young professionals (bankers, lawyers, etc), none of which are the sort of communities that establish flourishing restaurant scenes, especially not for Indian cuisine which is best prepared in large scale. I usually get annoyed when people adopt elitist attitudes about food (you can't get X in NYC) but I do think it's just a fact here.

Also, anecdotally, I believe that a large % of the "Indians" you see in NYC are actually Bengali or South Indian, both of which have excellent but distinct culinary traditions which are not what most non-Indians expect at a typical Indian place like Mint, etc. Those places, and the quintessential dishes you find there (tandoori chicken, etc.), tend to be North Indian.

To Lawrence MD - the Indian parts of Jackson Heights are great for picking up transvestite prostitutes but not so much for the food. Seriously though, there are some good places for Indian desserts (e.g. Maharaja) but have not been impressed with any of the restaurants.Edited by johanm - 12/30/12 at 5:44pm

Gdl - it's a demographics thing. There are also a lot of Chinese people here obviously but NYC's offerings are relatively mediocre there as well with the possible exception of some Uighur restaurants in Flushing. Anyway, the issue is that there is not much of an established middle class Indian community in NYC, certainly not compared to San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, etc. Ask any Indian person you know and they will corroborate this. In terms of broad demographic trends, Indian immigrants tend to move to the west coast (tech industry) or around the country to practice medicine, engineering, etc. The ones that do stick around in the tristate area tend to shift to the burbs (e.g. central New Jersey) because of various cultural attitudes (they need space to entertain large extended families, put up their parents for months on end, etc). This all sounds ridiculously stereotypical but again I'm sure your Indian friends will confirm. The Indians that remain in NYC are usually poor immigrants (cab drivers, etc), recent immigrants in transition (medical residents, students), and young professionals (bankers, lawyers, etc), none of which are the sort of communities that establish flourishing restaurant scenes, especially not for Indian cuisine which is best prepared in large scale. I usually get annoyed when people adopt elitist attitudes about food (you can't get X in NYC) but I do think it's just a fact here.
To Lawrence MD - the Indian parts of Jackson Heights are great for picking up transvestite prostitutes but not so much for the food. Seriously though, there are some good places for Indian desserts (e.g. Maharaja) but have not been impressed with any of the restaurants.

I'm just fucking with you. You're probably right with your sociology/race demographic per geography musings about indian food, about for all other azn food Queens has it in spades as long as you're aren't looking for high class joints. UFC chicken (especially the garlic spice variant is AWESOME

which brings up another reason why NYC can suck.... often times the good ethnic food is pretty hard to get to. If you're in manhattan then you have to take two trains to the boroughs. If you're in brooklyn and want to get some good Persian Food in Woodside then its an hour in the subway or you have to drive through super congested parts of brooklyn queens or brave the BQE if its not traffic.

You guys are way too picky for me, I have to give up on the true real authentic ethnic food discussion and take a stroll to the contentedness thread right now...

johanm - not that I really care much to disagree with you but census info seems to indicate that most south asian are actually indian not bengali or pakistani in NYC, which jibes very much with my own experience with regards, to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet - most are from Indian families

You guys are way too picky for me, I have to give up on the true real authentic ethnic food discussion and take a stroll to the contentedness thread right now...
johanm - not that I really care much to disagree with you but census info seems to indicate that most south asian are actually indian not bengali or pakistani in NYC, which jibes very much with my own experience with regards, to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet - most are from Indian familieshttp://www.chhayacdc.org/ourissues_sasians.html

GDL - fair enough, I hate being on the offensive in one of those tiresome "you can't find real X in Y" debates. One small note, I was not distinguishing between Indian vs Pakistani numbers, but rather North Indian vs South Indian immigration and cuisine, the latter which you typically see represented by vegetarian/dosa joints. Pakistani food is pretty similar to North Indian food (lot of crossover in the Lahori / Delhi traditions, both rooted in the Mughal style).